A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

I'll Never Love Again

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 2m, 7any gender (adult), 1any gender (youth)

Clare Barron

In this deeply personal chamber play, a choir stages and sings entries from the author's teenage diary, knitting an affecting theatrical portrait exploring body image, intimacy and love.

I'll Never Love Again

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m, 7any gender (adult), 1any gender (youth)
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary
I'll Never Love Again is a theatrical chamber piece about first love, first heartbreak and how those early teenage experiences haunt the rest of our lives – created from the playwright's actual high school diary. It's performed by a chorus of 12+ people, and it ends in late-night coffee, fellowship and music.
History
I'll Never Love Again premiered at the Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn, NY in February 2016, under the direction of Michael Leibenluft.
Keywords
Performing Groups

This piece is to be performed by a diverse ensemble of all ages. All genders, all races, all backgrounds, all bodies, all sexualities, all souls.

ONE, TWO, THREE and FOUR are our main ensemble who will lead us through the show. They are part of a twelve-person choir (it can be bigger, if you have more people), and they emerge slowly from the choir over the course of the piece.

The characters of CLARE and GUY in the sex scene are played by members of the choir.

The character of CLARE in the office scene is played by the performer playing FOUR. The character of AMANDA in the office scene is played by the performer playing ONE. And the character of JACKSON in the office scene is played by the performer playing TWO.

ROGER and OONA are new actors, not in the choir, who appear for the first time in the office scene. Oona should be played by a real 8th-grader.

  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Setting A stage. Various locations in the author's personal history.
  • Additional Features Play with Music
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Intense Adult Themes
    • Strong Language

Media

“As I’ll Never Love Again suggests so compassionately, the enigmas of the hearts and loins persist throughout our lives.” – The New York Times

“As the three movements lock solidly together, they assemble into a kind of machine for empathy. Barron uses the tingling embarrassment of actual confession to teach us to watch the conventional scene with heightened senses; we're shaken from our usual attitudes toward theatrical playacting.” – Time Out NY

“Poignantly, the journals emphasize themes that remain important in Barron’s work: the intractability of emotion, the hazards of the body, the power and absurdity of desire.” – The New Yorker

“A new work... with which anyone who struggled with the anguishing mysteries of sex and love during adolescence is guaranteed to identify.” – The New Yorker

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £55 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Scripts

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Authors

Clare Barron

Clare Barron

Clare Barron is a playwright and performer from Wenatchee, Washington. Her play Dance Nation recently received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in May 2018 and subsequently its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London. It was a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Pri ...

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